The following description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Mobile devices provide many conveniences to people nowadays due to their portability. As these mobile devices are getting more powerful, more features and functionalities from these devices are demanded. Often times, large data sets are needed to support some of these features and functionalities (e.g., object-recognition data set, digital media such as videos, audios, documents, augmented reality content, etc.). It is not realistic or optimal to permanently store the entire data sets for all of the features and functionalities that might be activated from time to time, especially when the storage space in these mobile devices are comparatively small. It has been contemplated by others to have these large data sets be stored remotely (e.g., in the cloud), and have the mobile devices retrieve these data sets on demand. Thus, the data sets reside remotely, and only when certain related functionalities are activated the data sets are retrieved by the mobile devices. One disadvantage of this solution is the latency to gain access to the functionalities created by retrieving these datasets. Due to the size of these datasets and the limited bandwidth of these mobile devices, it may take minutes or hours to download the entire datasets required by certain functionalities.
Effort has been made in developing systems and methods of managing the access of data content among portable storage devices on a network. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,743,213 to Hong, entitled “Portable Storage Device with Network Function,” issued Jun. 22, 2010, discusses an electronic apparatus coupled to a plurality of portable storage devices and managing the access of content between the memory unit of each portable storage device and a remote network host. Hong, however, does not teach managing the activation or deactivation of the content distributed among the portable storage devices. U.S. patent application 2010/0205148 to Leblanc et al. entitled “Method and System for Pushing Content to Mobile Devices,” published Aug. 12, 2010, discusses the pushing of content to a plurality of mobile devices such that the content is stored locally on the device and available for offline viewing. Unfortunately, Leblanc also fails to provide insight into methods of activating or deactivating the stored content online or offline, locally or otherwise.
U.S. Patent Publication 2013/0227052 entitled “Image Content Based Prediction and Image Cache Controller” to Wenzel et al., filed Oct. 27, 2011, discloses a caching controller that predicts multiple views of images that a user would view in the near future based on the current view of images, and pre-loading those multiple view of images on the device. A non-patent literature document entitled “Detection Caching for Faster Object Detection” by Pham et al., published in 2005, discloses a method of pre-loading certain face detection parameters that were previously computed based on similarity between the current image and a previous image.
Other efforts made in the area of improving the speed of application based on caching include U.S. Patent Publication 2012/0099533 entitled “Content Caching in the Radio Access Network (RAN)” to Kovvali et al., filed Dec. 29, 2011, U.S. Patent Publication 2012/0243732 entitled “Adaptable Framework for Cloud Assisted Augmented Reality” to Swaminathan et al., filed Sep. 19, 2011, and International Application WO 2012/177194 entitled “Caching Support for Visual Search and Augmented Reality in Mobile Networks” to Damola, filed Jun. 21, 2011.
Even though the above references are useful when data for only one specific purpose application is being dealt with, they do not address circumstances that are unique to mobile devices, which is when many different applications can be activated in different situations. Thus, there is still a need for a distributed storage system in which data content and associated activation criteria are disseminated across the readable memory of a plurality of mobile devices via a mobile device interface.
All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
In some embodiments, the numbers expressing quantities of ingredients, properties such as concentration, reaction conditions, and so forth, used to describe and claim certain embodiments of the invention are to be understood as being modified in some instances by the term “about.” Accordingly, in some embodiments, the numerical parameters set forth in the written description and attached claims are approximations that can vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by a particular embodiment. In some embodiments, the numerical parameters should be construed in light of the number of reported significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding techniques. Notwithstanding that the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broad scope of some embodiments of the invention are approximations, the numerical values set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely as practicable. The numerical values presented in some embodiments of the invention may contain certain errors necessarily resulting from the standard deviation found in their respective testing measurements.
As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” includes plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
The recitation of ranges of values herein is merely intended to serve as a shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range. Unless otherwise indicated herein, each individual value is incorporated into the specification as if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g. “such as”) provided with respect to certain embodiments herein is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element being essential to the practice of the invention.
Groupings of alternative elements or embodiments of the invention disclosed herein are not to be construed as limitations. Each group member can be referred to and claimed individually or in any combination with other members of the group or other elements found herein. One or more members of a group can be included in, or deleted from, a group for reasons of convenience and/or patentability. When any such inclusion or deletion occurs, the specification is herein deemed to contain the group as modified thus fulfilling the written description of all Markush groups used in the appended claims.